Rock Island daily Argus., 1887-07-23


his mouth and one eye. and twisted up his
hideous countenance into ghastly imitation
of Bessie's sorrow stricken face, catching hold
of one of the posts that supported the hut to
assist in the performance.
$50 she believed it,"
Surely"
well, we are going there tomorrow"
so, baasi l knew that before you told
men
We are going there, and we are going to
take the place; and We are going to try Uncle
Silas by court martial for flying an English
flag, and if he is found guilty we are going to
shoot him, Hendrix"
hands i'll glee; "but viii he be found guiltyr
u don't know, murmured the white man,
stroking his golden beard; that will depend
upon what missile has to say; and upon the
verdict of the court, he added, by way of an
afterthought.
"On the verdict of the court, ha! haw
chuckled his wicked satellite "0n the ver-
dict of the court, yes! yes and the baas
will be president, ha! ha One needs no
witchcraft to guess the verdict And if the
court finds Uncle Silas guilty, who will do
the shooting, baas!'
Il have not thought of that; the time has
not come to think of it. 1t does not matter;
anybody can carry out the sentence of the
law
"Baas,r said the Kaffir, Il have done much
for you and had little pay. have done ugly
things ] have read omens and made metll-
cines. and 'smelt out your enemies. Will
YOU grant me favorl VIII you let me shoot
ON Croft if the court finds him guilty. 1t is
not much to ask. baas | am a clever wiz
| zarl and deserve my pay"
"Why do YOU want to shoot him!"
Because he tiogged me once, years ago,
for being witch doctor, and the other day
he hunted me off the place Besides, it is so
| nice to shoot white man. | should like it
| better" he went on, with smack of the lips,
| Iii it were missile, who set the dog on me. |
would
In moment Frank Muller had the aston
| iShed ruffan by the throat and was kicking
and shaking him as though he were a toy.
His brutal talk of Bessie had appealed to such
manliness as he had in him, and, whatever his
own wickedneSs may have been, he was too
| madly in love with the woman to let her name
be taken in vain by man whom, though he
held his magic in superstiti0us reverence,
he Yet ranked lower than dog. With his
nerves strung to the highest possible state of
tension. and half drunk as he was, Frank
| Muller was no more person to be played
with or irritated than a mad bull
you black beastr7 he yelled, IF you ever
| dare to mention her name again like that I
will kill You, for all your wltchcraft1 and he
hurled him with such force up against the
| wall of the hut that the whole place shook
| The man fell, lay for moment groaning and
| then crept from the hut on his hands and
| knees
Muller sat scowling from under his bent
brows and watched him go When he was
gone he rose and fastened the door behind
him, and then suddenly burst into tears: the
result, no doubt, of the mingled effects of the
drink, mental and physical exhaustion and
the never resting passion lone can scarcely
call it love- that ate away at his heart like the
worm that dieth not
~Oh. Bessie. BesSie,n he groaned, Il have
done 1t all for You. Surely you cannot be
angry when | have killed them all for you
Oh, my darling, my darling If YOU only
| knew how | love you Oh, my darlingl my
| darlingl" and in an agony of passion be flung
himself down on the rough pallet in the
| VI lllt hui SbilDtAt uiilStll W SlttD-
Somehow Frank Muller's evil doing did not
make him any the happier. the fact of the
matter being that to enjoy wickednesS man
must be not only without conscience, but also
without passion Now Frank Muller was
| tormeLted with a very effective substitute for
the first superstition, and his life was liter,
ally overshadowed by the last, for the beauty
of girl possessed the power to dominate his
widest moods and inflict upon him torments
that she herself was incapable of even imagin
ing.
AT the first light of dawn Hendrix crepi
humbly into the hut and woke bis master
and within half an hour they were across the
Vaal and on the road to Wakkerstroom
As the light increased so did Muller's spirit:
rise, till at last, when the red sun came up il
glory and swept away the shadows, he fell
as though all the load of guilt and fear thai
lay at his heart had departed with them. HI
could see now that the two Beers being killed
by a flash Of lightning was mere accident
happy accident, indeed for had it not beeI
for that he himself would have had to xii
them, if be could not by any other mean
have got the warrant from them As it wa
he had forgotten the warrant: but it did no
matter much he reflected. Nobody woult
be likely to find the bodies of the two mel
and horses under the lonely bank there Ger
tainly they would not be found until tn
aasvogels had picked them clean The
would be at work upon them by now. ANT
if they were found 1t was probable that tn
paper would have rotted or blown away, OF
at the worst, he SO discolored as to be unread
able For the rest, there was nothing to con
meet him with the murder, now that the tw'
accessories were dead Hendrix would prov
an alibi for him He was t, useful man
Hendrix. Besides, who would believe that j
was murder. Two men were escorting al
! Englisbman to the river; somehow they be
came involved i'll q quarrel; the Englishmal
shot them, and they shot the Englishman AM
his companion Then the horses plunge,
into the Vaal and upset the cart, and ther
/ was an end of it, He could see now how we
things had gone for him. He was PRACTICAL
! placed beyond suspicion.
| And then he fell to thinking of the fruits G
his honest iabors, and his cheek grew war;
with the mounting blood, and his eyes fiashe
with the fire of youth In two days-forty
r eight hours-at the outside, Bessie would b
5 in his arms He could not miscarry now: b
r was in absolute command there. Besides
t Hendrix had read it in his omens long agt
D Moofontein should be storIned on the MOI
: row if that were necessary, and ON Sila
= Croft and Bessie should be taken prisoner
e and then he knew how to put on the screw
S That talk about shooting on the previou
night had been no idle threat. She shoul
1 yield herself to him or the old man should di'
j and then he would take her. There could
4 no legal consequences from that now that tt
g British government was suirendering
e would be meritorious act to shoot reb'
k Englishman.
Yes, it was all PLAIN sailing now Ho'
n long had it taken him to win her-thre
a yearsl He had loved her for three year
Well, he would have his reward; and ther
A his mind at rest about his passion, he woul
, | turn it to those far reaching, ambition
4 schemes of which the end was something lii
~ a throne
: ITO be eontiDued.)
it Sa"rt-slee we'd mantles are much
e vogue.